Season 3 Recap
A Time of Transition
This season, from a publishing perspective, has been weird.
From a life perspective, it’s been wild.
💼 I quit my job
💍 I got married
🤠 We’re packing up our life in Austin
✈️ After a brief respite with family in the Northeast, we’ll be en route to our first sabbatical destination: Malaysia
Since starting The Spoonful in April this year, I’ve been committed to a weekly publishing cadence, with a break between seasons. Now, I’m embracing the chapter of life I’ve found myself in – a chapter full of celebratory, wonderful, anxious, and dramatic transition.
I’ve abandoned a couple pieces that I thought I’d publish this season. Recognizing how much I was forcing out of each piece, I decided to either discard or rewrite them. They were no longer authentic.
I’ve come to realize how much I need physical, mental, and emotional space to be consistently and coherently creative. With a transition out of work, getting married, packing up our life in Austin, and orchestrating a constantly shifting trip abroad… I have had very little space.
I’ve been feeling lots, and I’ve been capturing whatever gibberish my brain emits from these emotions. But I haven’t been afforded the stillness needed to convert this gibberish into lucid thought.
I continue to reassure myself: the luxury of stillness is coming soon!
The Recap
A Swig of a Forgotten Programming Language
This piece was inspired by the realization that things that are no longer “cool” can teach us many lessons. Written after I stumbled on some CoffeeScript files at my (now previous) job, I enjoyed wrapping this piece on technology with a bit of magic.
Unblocking a Writing Clog
With the lack of space that I mentioned at the top of this post, I found a quiet moment with my journal and just wrote with reckless abandon. It was one of the few times these weeks that I felt the flow of words so easily. The journal entry was lightly edited and published here.
The Big Quit
This post outlines my mindset around quitting my job and the mental model I have around employment in general. It was fun to write, and I hope it becomes a springboard for the many other thoughts around the topic of work, employment, and meaning.
Changes on the Horizon
Soon, I’ll be publishing intentions for my travels, thoughts on love, and perhaps some musings on spirituality.
There are a bevy of experiments and adjustments in the wings, too. I’m working on a software side project which I’ll be unveiling here. There’s a poetry project cooking. I’m thinking about adding photos to my posts here. Substack’s new app is beautiful, and makes me want to write more Notes.
With all of the ways my life is evolving, it’s folly to think that The Spoonful will stay the same. I’m beginning to feel the subtle itchiness of creativity seep into my mornings, in the moments of calm before I check the packing to-do list. It’s leading somewhere very exciting…
Congratulations!
On the wedding, on the move, on making decisions - including not forcing your voice to meet someone else's expectations. That is wisdom. Learning to listen to yourself.
Wishing you both so much joy and discovery over this next season of life, Saalik!